Busy Summer

Corn maturing, vegetables withering, never ending canning & freezing, not to mention taking care of the house hold and one half crazy, dementia patient MIL. The last few times my family went to Six Flags I didn't bother going. Why you asked? Well, there are many things to consider before I can get of the house.

The night before I need to cook and gather MIL things for the care giver to have the next day. And when the day finally get here, I have to spent a minimum of 15 minutes or more to explain everything. And when my family and I get back, I still need to check my MIL, gather everything on her side of the house and bring them to my side to prevent braking, misplaced, or hidden in places where they are not suppose to be.

So, I decided not to bother going somewhere, doing all the work I do all day in a short time. Have fun I tell them.

Now let's get back to my vegetable garden. I have so much cucumber and tomatoes this year. I made sweet relish, who kinds of bread & butter pickles, tomato soups, salsa dip, & tomato/spaghetti sauce. Right now I have another batch of spaghetti sauce slow cooking on my stove while I am writing this. Hopefully my family will like the homemade version.

I still have potatoes, corns, peanuts, butternut squash, and sweet potato waiting to get harvested. I'm waiting maybe early November I dig the underground ones. I also incorporate some flowers with my gardening this year. I told DH that I can scattered all the seeds I collected and cover our grassy yard with it, hoping the grass will not grow. He just laughed at me, knowing the grass will take over if its not mowed in a week. Well, I can dream, can I?

DH and I also planted forsythia above where my gardens & grassy yard for hedges. I hate not having my children not allowed to go out of the house during school hours in fear of prying eyes and calling what most called authorities because they are not in school. Not knowing they are home school, the damage is done at that point. I want our yard hidden from the road. The hedges are doing pretty well and already have some new leaves. Some are already as tall as my knees. I can't wait until they are as tall as me. My children and I can be outside more then.

I already took the dry vine remain from my  snap peas & cucumbers. There are about eight cucumbers left when the vines died and I thought I leave it there until they get bigger. Lo and behold they did not get bigger but ripen. Lesson learned, I should have picked them and make juice instead of having ripe cucumbers. They are good for seeds though, but I already saved the biggest cucumber for seeds for better quality cucumbers for next year or the next. With all the canning and freezing this year, I don't think I will need cucumbers next year. The same goes for tomatoes.

And note to self, when planning on canning something, make sure to plant everything I need for canning. I don't like to buy other ingredients when canning my home grown vegetables, unless its sugar, salt, vinegar or something I can't grow or process.